Company
Last year, we had the great fortune of being able to show off for the first time the last title that Adelaide's Ratbag games was working on before Midway Studios shut them down before Christmas, 2005. That title was The Wheelman for the PS2.
Other titles that Ratbag games was working on which went unpublished were other vehicle/action based games called Raid, and Scavenger. For those curious to see something of these games, someone has just uploaded the first public glimpses of it on youtube which you will be able to see below.
Developed to secure a project with Activision, this little prototype was developed in under 6 months. It was eventually picked up by Activision and was to be given the Soldier of Fortune IP. The game had many similarities with Pandemics Mercenaries being an open world free roaming military action game. After 12 months more development of which I dont have any footage of the final production build the project was cancelled by Activision.We've managed to archive Ratbag's website before it was pulled down so you can view Ratbag's page on Scavenger, however, the website scouring software wasn't able to secure the additional flash formatted files that showcased and described the story in the game. The description at Gamespy describes the game as...
...a futuristic wasteland ruled by raiders and villains, one man searches for his sister who was sold into slavery. Unfortunately for the bad folk of the world, he's one very determined, very ruthless, and very heavily armed man. A neo-apocalyptic action game, Scavenger features open-ended environments, third-person vehicular action and plenty of on-foot killing. From the racer-centric developers at Ratbag.
A little Vertical Slice gem from Ratbag Games. Scavenger was a Free Roaming 3rd Person Action game with exciting vehicle combat and a unique economy simulation that the player could influence and exploit. The player could roam the waste lands hunting bandits and convoys shipping goods between settlements or escort the convoys for a fee. Each settlement produced something the others required, if the player intercepted the goods they could then sell them to the towns that needed them for a higher price. Money was used to buy new vehicles weapons and upgrades. Unfortunately Midway had no interest in taking the project into full production and moved the team on to The Wheelman before eventually closing the studio.
This should not have been canned.
Jesus! This looks really cool (the outdated graphics not withstanding). I can't believe this got canned. Fucking retarded pubs...
Weak
Doesn't surprise me really.. both games lacked quality and just feel amateur. Yes it is just a prototype but if you can't make it look amazing with a heavily edited video then the actual game must be pretty weak.
Weak?
You do realise that was a five year old game that was nowhere near release candidate don't you? Anyway, the first video reminded me a lot of Just Cause 2. But alas, que sera, sera.
Well...
6 years ago on PS2, these were internal pitch videos. The first video actually secured a project. The second was developed off the technology of the cancelled Activision project. Scavenger was a blast to play and had some of the best looking stream tech on PS2. It was developed in 4 - 5 months. Midway was the only company it was pitched to as they had already purchased the company. They did not want develop the game because "post apocalyptic games don't sell"
Post apocalyptic "driving"
Post apocalyptic "driving" games don't sell.
True
But it wasn't just a 'driving' game it had aircraft and on foot gameplay.
Affirmative
I played both these games. Fond memories and cool team aside. When compared to Pandemics Merc's which was released before these would have hit market, they were both absolute rubbish. Scavenger was basically a better tuned and art swapped version of RAID. There were both doomed to failure because they both played like crap.
It was often felt that one of
It was often felt that one of the reasons the Raid project was cancelled was because of Mercenaries and more importantly the complete lack of strong leadership and game direction. Raid never had a good high level game design and meta structure but it did have some excellent tech and features that were fun. When Mercs came out Activision was rightfuly justified in pulling the plug.
Scavenger was built off Raids tech and its core vehicle combat was also very good. The high level pitch concept for the full game would have made and excellent game and to this day I still wish someone would make something like it.
They had allot of things that needed improving for sure but these were games that were also a long way off alpha let alone being polished.
Wasn't Scavenger a revamp of
Wasn't Scavenger a revamp of the Rockstar Ikon project?
No
Ratbag always wanted to do a Mad Max themed game and actually approached George Miller about it several times but he was not interested in licensing it for a game. He has since been working with Cory Barlog on a Mad Max game concept.
So... B13 ? :D not that I'm
So... B13 ? :D
not that I'm complaining; that game would ROCK